Issue 28 Spring 2000 The Lads and Dads Experiment Anne Marley >>>>>>>>>> Back to first Conference Item	Collections under which this       article appears:       Reading       Libraries       Y L G Related Articles or Resources Other Articles by Author

Introduction
As part of Hampshire County Library's programme of projects and events during the National Year of Reading, we decided to produce a leaflet intended for fathers and their teenage sons, who perhaps wanted to read, but were uncertain of what was around and suitable.

This developed from an initial wish to create a useful booklist, produced by librarians, into a successful, regularly attended Reading Group of fathers and their sons: meeting in school, talking about the books they had read and recommending them to one another. It is their recommendations that constitute the major part of the 'Dads and Lads list', which is now published by Hampshire Library Service.

Boys and Reading
The idea of a booklist for teenage boys and their fathers arose out of a concern that boys 'stopped' reading once they had become teenagers. They had too many other things to do - socialising with mates, hanging out, playing on their computers at home, homework - anything rather than reading, which is decidedly uncool and smacks of schoolwork.

The other probable reason is that they find it difficult to find material they want to read. Their parents don't necessarily know about suitable books and maybe the librarian at school doesn't have either the budget or the time to help them select material. Boys often see reading as very 'nerdy' and if it's a case of going to the library or bookshop to get a book or going to a football match, there's no contest!

Beginnings
A small working party of librarians, mostly female inevitably, sat down in September 1998, having consulted colleagues in the rest of the library service, and tried to come up with a booklist that we thought would be appropriate for men and boys. The initial list was to be a combination of fiction and information books, and we thought that we could put the books into 9 genres - sport, war, fantasy, travel, biography, computers, humour, thrillers, and sci-fi and have a small number of books in each section. They were to be a combination of adult and teenage titles, which would appeal to all.

The lists came back from colleagues and we started to look at them, editing out ones that we felt were unsuitable. We were halfway to considering getting this printed, when it occurred to us that we were unwittingly, and for the best of motives, committing the ultimate sin of not consulting our customers in any way - simply deciding that as librarians with lots of knowledge and experience of reading we knew best.

Focus Groups in schools
At this point, we decided that we would enlist the help of Focus Groups of fathers and sons, who would perhaps meet a few times and suggest useful titles they had read, read some of the ones we had put forward and then we could produce our list, having duly consulted the end user!

We decided to tackle this by using secondary schools and our excellent contacts, through the School Library Service, with English teachers and school librarians. We approached four schools in the County, asking if they could find a small number of Year 8 or 9 boys, who would be prepared to come into school with their fathers and talk about books they had read, with a view to their selections being included in a booklist.

The librarians and teachers were enthusiastic and they didn't think it would be difficult to get 5 or 6 pairs of fathers and sons together as they had a number of boys, who were readers, that they thought might be interested.

The reality was, in fact, very different. Three of the four schools got back to me in January 1999, very disappointed that they had been unable to get more than one or two boys to show an interest. Sometimes, it came down to it being seen as a very uncool thing to do, sometimes their fathers weren't interested or hadn't the time, and some of the boys, inevitably, didn't have a father at home. The schools were quite shocked, having thought that this wouldn't be a problem, knowing their students as they did, but they were still interested in the concept, and wanted to know how the project developed elsewhere, hoping they would be able to take it up in the future.

The Test Valley experience
In the event, only one school joined in, Test, mainly by dint of the persuasive powers of the school librarian Ruth Crabb. She approached boys individually, sounded them out and gave them a letter to take home to their fathers, explaining what we were hoping to do. Even so, at our first meeting in February 1999, only four fathers and sons turned up. Between them, their expressions betrayed uncertainty, wariness, and a certain look of 'I've been dragged along here, and I don't know what you want of me' - and that was both fathers and sons!

We met in the library, and gave out refreshments in an attempt to break the ice. The School Library Service provided the books from those featured on our original lists. The Headteacher, who is very supportive was there and one of the English teachers (our token man!), along with two members of the School Library Service and the school librarian.

We had arranged the books on the tables by genres. I made the introductions, talked about what we hoped to achieve and then basically gave a book talk about the books on the tables, just giving brief snippets of what the books were about. We asked them what type of books they normally read and what other books they would like us to bring along. Their preferences were inevitably very varied - one parent who only ever read travel stories and couldn't see himself changing, another only liked biographies. A couple of the boys preferred war stories, another funny stories. None, surprisingly, went for horror or fantasy - what we assumed were the staple fictional diet of teenagers.

We didn't limit the numbers of books they could take away on the principal that we wanted them to try a range of books, and we arranged to meet again two months later.

From then on, we've had a fairly consistent number of fathers and sons coming along - sometimes as many as six, sometimes back to four, but this was on the night of the European Cup Final, so sometimes books do come first!

The results
The results have been fascinating. The first thing to go was the idea of genres. This group didn't think about books according to genres, just according what sounded interesting when someone talked about it. Horror continued to rate low, as did fantasy.

The impact of the meetings has been quite astonishing. Understandably at first, the boys were reluctant to contribute and so were some of the fathers, preferring to sit back and listen to what others had to say. But gradually, they all joined in - the father who only read travel stories, discovered Patricia Cornwell, and has become a devoted fan. A couple of the boys, who initially were very reluctant readers now take four or five books at a time (they can exchange them in the library between meetings if they finish them) and are prepared to say something about them, even if it is very brief and to the point.

All of them fill in review slips for us to use for the booklist and we take notes of what is said about the books in the meetings, as these comments are often very revealing. They are now taking books that the others have recommended. Bill Bryson has turned out to be the most popular author within the group with both sons and fathers. The most popular book to date is Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole; the Wilderness Years.

At first we thought fathers and sons would read the same books, but this, of course, didn't work. They do, though, sometimes read each other's books - not to censor or ridicule - but genuinely to read and share their reading together.

A father and son from another local secondary school, Harrow Way, came along to our last couple of meetings in the summer. That particular father only came along because his son was a keen reader, he himself read very little and very unwillingly. Since then, he's become a much more enthusiastic reader and has surprised himself.

We've added to and broadened the range of books as they've suggested things they've heard about. True-life sport biographies enjoyed no success at all, so we took those out. The boys' reading ranges from Morris Gleitzman and Paul Jennings to Andy McNab and Bill Bryson. The fathers' reading is limitless really - Patricia Cornwell, and Tony Hawks are all there along with Sebastian Faulks, Paul Theroux and Thomas Keneally. Inevitably, as this is a small group it is therefore only a very small portion of male reading society, but it has provided us with some very interesting information both about men's reading and our own beliefs about reading and books.

The first lesson we learnt was assume nothing - people can be adventurous in their reading and we should never be surprised about anything! The second was about reading - people's reading is almost universally eclectic when they are not particularly confident readers and they will try anything if it sounds interesting enough.

The third interesting aspect of this project was that teenage boys not surprisingly want to read adult books. The boys in the group still read Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman, but weren't much interested in the 'teenage' novels we took along. The fourth and best lesson was that boys and men do read. At least the ones in our group did and do, and are reading more and with greater confidence than the Head, the teacher and the librarian thought possible.

At our last meeting, when I had shown them the draft of the booklist, I asked if they wanted to continue meeting. To our delight, all of them did. We asked if they would be happy for more to come to the group - another father and son from Harrow Way wanted to come as well as a couple of the existing group's friends, but they didn't want the group to get too large. So our next meeting will have 10 fathers and sons and other schools that have heard about the group are trying to start their own up now.

The booklist
The booklist is now split into three sections - what the boys read, what boys and fathers read together and what the fathers read. There is a special box for reviews of the author and illustrator Anthony Browne, and his son Joe, who kindly agreed to read the books for us. There is also a section devoted to Bill Bryson, who was overall the most popular author. At each stage we have consulted the group and shown them proofs of how it might look when completed.

What did it cost?
To set this up, we had to provide a fairly substantial range of books - adult and teenage. These were jointly paid for out of the adult and children's public, and SLS, budgets. The stock is technically out of action for 6 weeks at a time, but it is being rotated, when it hasn't been selected for a couple of sessions it goes back into stock.

Between them the school and the library service have five people there to support each session. But this is only one evening every 6-8 weeks for 90 minutes. A new group is in the process of being set up, and so the books will be used to service both meetings.

Next year, we are going to apply for funding to broaden the groups, and try to get a Literature Officer to work with groups in the county.

Conclusion
The findings and results of this project more than justify its cost. Boys and men do read - what the reading groups give them is the opportunity to find out what is available, to talk to others about their reading and to experiment in a relaxed environment. This, we think, has been the crucial element. It's also taught us in the library service a great deal about the importance of consultation. The booklist that we have published is a very different beast to the one we very nearly produced a year ago, and one of which I think all of the Group can be justifiably proud of.